Cameroon - Political parties

The Cameroon National Union (Union Nationale Camerounaise—UNC)
was Cameroon's sole legal political party until 1990. It was
formed in 1966 through a merger of the Cameroon Union (Union
Camerounaise) and the Kamerun National Democratic Party, the major
political organizations, respectively, of the eastern and western
regions, and four smaller parties. The UNC sponsors labor, youth, and
women's organizations and provided the only list of candidates
for the 1973, 1978, and 1983 legislative elections.

Ahmadou Ahidjo became the first head of the UNC in 1966 and continued in
that capacity after his resignation as the nation's president in
1982. Following President Biya's assumption of emergency powers
in August 1983, Ahidjo, then in France, resigned as party leader. Biya
was subsequently elected party chief at a special party congress in
September. In 1985, the UNC was renamed the Cameroon People's
Democratic Movement (CPDM or Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple
Camerounaise—RDPC).

Opposition parties were legalized in 1990. In the elections to the
National Assembly on 1 March 1992, the RDPC/CPDM won 88 of the 180
seats; the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP), 68 seats;
the Union of Cameroonian Populations (UPC), 18 seats; and the Movement
for the Defense of the Republic (MDR), 6 seats. The RDPC/CPDM and the
MDR formed a coalition.

In the presidential election of 11 October 1992, the voting was
split— RDPC/CPDM 40%; Social Democratic Front (SDF), 36%; and
UNDP 18%. The SDF accused Biya of stealing the election, but Biya was
reelected to his post as head of the RDCP/CPDM in October 1995.

In the May 1997 National Assembly elections, the RDPC/CPDM took 109
seats, the SDF 43, the UNDP 13, the UDC 5, others 3, and cancelled
constituencies 7. The opposition, backed by international observers,
declared the legislative elections highly flawed, and based on their
perception of misconduct, the main opposition parties boycotted the
presidential elections of October later that year.

The SDF and its allies in the Union for Change remain critical of Biya
but are also critical of France, which they call an "accomplice
of those in power." However, in 2000 the alliance reportedly was
falling apart as the SDF sought to distance itself from the SCNC. The
SCNC apparently was accusing the SDF of delaying independence for the
northwest and southwest English-speaking provinces by refusing to force
its English-speaking members of parliament to resign from the
Francophonedominated National Assembly. Moreover, some members of the
opposition wanted their party leaders to join Biya's coalition
government so they could share the spoils of office.

By 2000, Biya had shored up his government by forming a coalition with
the northern-based UNDP, which had 13 Assembly seats, and with the UPC,
which had one seat. Together, the ruling coalition gave Biya a
four-fifth's majority in the Assembly. The coalition government
enjoyed support from seven of Cameroon's 10 provinces, and thus
secured former President Ahidjo's north-south alliance, which he
had created in 1958.

In the June and September 2002 National Assembly elections, the
RDPC/CPDM took 149 seats, the SDF 22, the UDC 5, the UPC 3, and the UNDP
1. Voting irregularities in 9 constituencies (17 seats) in the June
elections led to the subsequent by-elections in September for those
seats. Nineteen of the SDF's seats came from the English-speaking
northwest province. The biggest loser in the election was the UNDP: it
had won 68 seats in 1992 and 13 seats in 1997. Observers attributed the
party's poor showing to its participation in the RDPC/CPDM-led
government.